“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”

I recently came into possession of a iPad 2 in like-new condition (I traded my granddaughter out of it!). I already have a desk-top HP that I use for daily living, including genealogy, so why would I want an iPad?

First, possibly the greater question is why would my granddaughter allow me to trade her out of said iPad 2? About a year ago, her laptop was on its last legs, so we started looking for a replacement. After some online research and comparison, she decided on the iPad. Off to Best Buy we went, and came home with a new 16GB iPad 2. Now normally when I get a new computer, I immediately set it up with Firefox, antivirus, OpenOffice, and PaintShop Pro and of course, RootsMagic. But with the iPad, none of this was necessary (or even possible). My granddaughter simply took it out of the box, fired it up and started surfing!

The iPad was great for Facebook, Skype, taking photos and doctoring them, and playing games. But it seemed like when homework time came along (which is why I bought a computer for her to begin with), she was back at my desktop HP.

The iPad just didn’t seem to be the optimal tool for education.

So, a few days ago, after doing my own homework, I went back to Best Buy and found a Dell laptop that was $200 cheaper at Best Buy than from the Dell website. I brought it home, set it up with the aforementioned Firefox browser, Panda Cloud Antivirus, LibreOffice (the new OpenOffice), my Canon printer software, and iTunes. By the time my granddaughter got home from school that day, the Dell was ready for use… and the IPAD WAS MINE!

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2 thoughts on “Serious genealogical research with an iPad?”

Sorry, Michele! I work all weekend (literally!), so I don’t get much time for genealogy. But the 3rd part of this series is now posted, with 1 more “episode” remaining. Hope it’s helpful to you :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Ruth